In today's business world, communications via electronic mail resources, such as E-mail, fax mail, voice mail, etc., are becoming increasingly popular. As a result, various communications companies have seen a growing market in this industry and have set up systems for the transmission of electronic mail items. Such companies will hereinafter be referred to as "mail service providers".
Generally, a user opens up an account with the mail service provider(s) of his/her choice. The user then receives software from the mail service provider which the user must load on his/her computer in order for the computer to interface, i.e., receive and transmit electronic mail items, with the mail server utilized by the mail service provider. The user also receives an address or "mailbox" within the mail service provider's network at which electronic mail items addressed to the user are received and stored.
When a user wishes to send an E-mail message, the user must access the appropriate mail service provider software. The user can then send the message to a desired destination via the selected mail service provider network. If the user has more than one mail service provider account, the user must manually choose which mail service provider to use for transmitting the E-mail message.
Since there are numerous mail service providers in the marketplace today, various discounts may be offered in order to attract business. A user manually choosing a first mail service provider to transmit an E-mail message may be unaware that a second or third mail service provider is offering a drastically reduced rate at that particular time. Further, the user may also be unaware that the mail service provider is experiencing a high volume of traffic which may delay the E-mail transmission.
In receiving E-mail messages, a user must log onto the appropriate mail service provider and check the mailbox provided to the user by the particular mail service provider. The user can then retrieve the message from the mailbox and view the message. If the user has more than one mail service provider account, the user must manually access each mailbox provided by each mail service provider. This is time consuming in that the user has to log onto each particular mail service provider in order to interface with the mailbox provided by the particular mail service provider.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the above-mentioned problems.